The death rate of our Black sons continues to skyrocket. And while recent events have caused the Black community and others to unite against crimes perpetrated on Black men and women by law enforcement, those events do not negate the fact that the majority of the deaths of our Black sons are at the hands of other Black sons. I call it Black on Black genocide. The murder rate in Chicago is higher than it has ever been. And it does not just extend to large, urban cities. Recently, while I was in Macon, Georgia, I overheard two people talking about the gang violence and murder rate increasing in a small town called Griffin, Georgia, so much so that they said that “tough dudes from Atlanta are afraid to come to Griffin.”
Three years ago, while living in Philadelphia, I woke up one morning overwhelmed with grief about the murders of young brothers in the city. God gave me words to a song, and I couldhardly write fast enough. He also gave me the vision for the Zion, Travail video, at that time. I started humming the music to the song, and my son, Sagi, came running out of his room with his keyboard, and he began to play what he heard me hum. As he played, I started singing, and God began to pull it all together. What took place that Sunday morning, became a movement in my spirit, a movement for the church (Zion) to cry out to God (Travail), until He changes things.
It is time that the church of the living God rise up and intercede like never before. We have the power that was given to us by our savior to bring the Kingdom of God in our atmosphere and exact change in the earth. We have the power to prophesy to the winds through intercession. When God was ready to bring deliverance and healing to Israel because of the gross injustices that were happening, He searched for an intercessor, but could not find one. Just one intercessor would have saved a nation from the injustices that had been perpetrated against them. There is nothing that cannot be broken with pray. We also need foot soldiers who are not afraid of interacting with our youth and showing them a better way. Rise up, Zion! Rise up!
“For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself, that spreadeth her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers” Jeremiah 4:31. It is time to save our sons, Zion, and it is time that we Travail like never before.